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It’s the RSST 4-hour tour week 2! In this week’s “Ooh”, we kicked off with an unidentified mystery ska from the mid-‘60s… I have neither artist, album, label, nor even country of origin on this thing! It’s the first ’60s-era ska I’ve heard containing passages in a meter other than 4, and for that reason alone I had to put it on… but to boot, it’s a bouncy, energetic, feet-grabbing tune, made to get ya movin’. Azie Lawrence also made his RSST (and Sherwood’s!) debut three times this week with a ska, a boogie shuffle and a cha-cha! The “Evening News” sounded slightly different this time because Kentrick Patrick (a.k.a. “Lord Creator”) recorded it for Prince Buster before he recorded it for Coxsone, and we played the Buster version this time. A still-earlier version on a Cook 45 was recorded before Creator left Trinidad for Jamaica, and we’re in search of a reasonably clean copy of that. The Prince himself also turns up in this set, alongside then-future Bullwackie’s founder Lloyd Barnes, Jackie Mittoo and Carlos Malcolm and others. When we got to Sherwood’s Planet, it was “Oye Como WHAT???” as The Snapper (artist) did “The Pig” (tune). Saito Neko and his orchestra joined Tokyo Jihen onstage for a killer tune called “Killer Tune” and Matt Wilson’s Arts & Crafts took The Scenic Route. And just in case you were wondering, It Gets Better… just ask Miles Davis. The Home Stretch gave us a double-dose of GotchaSKAvered’s September selection “Guns of Navarone”, even if the Col. Elliott version replaced “Navarone” in the title with “Martian Giants”. Whatever we may have had planned for the 5@5 went right down the All-Swallowing Hole as our minds blanked at 5:a.m. on the very existence of a “5@5”. Oh, well… how ‘bout an even 10 for Sept. 20th? Here on the RSST, we’ve decided (after the 9/13 Ska Trip had concluded) we’re gonna call that Slackers’ Eve, as the 21st is the night of the great Triple Rock triple-header (Prizefighters, Green Room Rockers, Slackers)… see ya there!

Watta debut! The RSST kisses the 3-hour tour goodbye (with a little help from The Upsetters… na-na-hey-hey) as we inaugurated our new 4-hour tour (yayyy!) A heaping helping of Skatalites, Carlos Malcolm, Byron Lee, Buster’s All Stars and more stretched the “Ooh” to an hour:15, Sherwood took over with the designated September selection from Hal Blaine, leading into a set jam-packed with everybody from Andre Popp to Emerson, Lake & Palmer to Perez Prado. In the Home Stretch: GotchaSKAvered, Navarone… it’s Western Standard Time! Plus: 2 Tone International for the 5@5 theme, Soom T with Mungo’s Hi-Fi on Scotch Bonnet, Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra reminding you that “You’ll Never Walk Alone”, and something from Gichy Dan’s Beachwood #9. 2 Much for 3 Hours, so now it’s 4!